Russia back to bombing hospitals

Russia is back to one of its worst habits: bombing hospitals. A Russian airstrike hit (or narrowly missed, and severely damaged) Mariupol maternity and children's hospital yesterday. Three people are dead, including one child, and 17 were injured in the attack, which occurred during what was supposed to be a cease-fire. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is calling it an atrocity and a war crime, which it probably is.

You might think, at first blush, that it was just an aberration, a mis-fire, an accident, and I am sure that Russia will try to characterize it as such. But shelling hospitals is part of Russia's MO. Any number of hospital strikes were recorded in the Russian-Syrian bombing raids in Syria over a period of several years since 2015.

I am at a loss to understand the strategic or tactical value of bombing a hospital. Russia continues to bomb civilian and residential targets, while strongly denying doing so, and it has repeatedly broken cease-fire agreements and compromised agreed evacuation corridors. If it needed more bad press and international condemnation, it is going exactly the right way about it. 

The only explanation I can find is Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's claim that the hospital had been emptied of patients and was being used by fighters of the Azov battalion and other Ukrainian extremist groups. Unfortunately, at the same time, Defence Ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov was claiming that the bombing never even took place, and that the explosions were "a staged provocation to incite anti-Russian agitation in the west". Guys, if you are going to lie, at least coordinate your lying, can you?

Is it possible that Russian troops are just really badly disciplined or poorly trained, that they are just plain inept? Or is this really part of their game plan, regardless of the censure and ostracism such heinous acts will necessarily attract? Their past record and recent actions suggests that they just don't care about being considered an international pariah. Maybe they are just past the stage of worrying about such niceties.

Way to go, Russia! How to make friends and influence people!